Electronics > Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff
Measured zener voltages
Conrad Hoffman:
As suggested above, I'm sure low voltage zeners are good for something, but I'm not sure what it is. Further, friends don't let friends buy electronic parts from the big auction site because they tend to be of questionable pedigree and quality.
TimFox:
At those low voltages, you have no choice but "true Zeners", unless you use band-gap devices such as the TL431 as shunt regulators.
muvideo:
--- Quote from: TimFox on July 09, 2020, 08:35:16 pm ---At those low voltages, you have no choice but "true Zeners", unless you use band-gap devices such as the TL431 as shunt regulators.
--- End quote ---
Some forward biased LEDs are not that bad, Red gives about 2V, Blue about 2.8-3V,
but their curve and internal resistance is not in datasheet usually and has to be tested.
exe:
very interesting, I'd expect the best zenners to be 5.6V and 6.2V. May be 6.8V if including a diode that should do temperature compensation.
srb1954:
Testing with 100mA Zener current is going to cause significant self-heating in the diodes, particularly if they are small packages. This will affect the shape of the curve due to the temperature coefficient of the Zener voltage - positive for voltages above 6V and negative for voltages below 5V, approximately zero between 5V and 6V.
If you really need to test the Zener voltage at high currents e.g. for clamping circuits you need to use a pulsed current technique to determine the true voltage vs current curve.
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